Frances Letters

Born 12 November 1944, Armidale NSW The old prejudices I grew up with in White Australia, and how life coaxed and pummelled me out of them, is the cornerstone of my writing these days. Being a child then had meant looking down my nose at people "not like us": particularly anyone of a different race or religion. It was years spent travelling in South-East Asia and India that first prised open my eyes and heart. My path out of that narrow world was very rocky at times--but adventurous and immense fun, too. I've just finished writing "Them", an account of this journey away from a closed heart and mind; I hope to publish it soon. I wrote and illustrated two books about my travels. "The Surprising Asians" is a personal account of hitchhiking round South-East Asia during the Vietnam war (Angus & Robertson 1968); it was a set text for NSW School Certificate English. "People of Shiva" tells of a year's adventures and the people I met travelling in India (Angus & Robertson, 1971). Learning Transcendental Meditation deepened my experience of the oneness of humanity. I've been a journalist on the Sydney Morning Herald, and worked as an editor, freelancer, travel writer, cleaner, cook, factoryhand, Portobello Road stallholder... From 1977 to 1980 I taught Transcendental Meditation in Spain. I'm interested in social justice, travel, anything to do with science for the layman, the environment, human spiritual evolution.